Joe Louis Story

Robert Gordon's The Joe Louis Story has been issued by Alpha Video in a passable edition, a slightly scratched but intact 16 mm print that has some blemishes -- mostly thin vertical black lines -- but is otherwise very watchable. A source like this would have just passed in the early '60s on television, and would possibly work on a UHF public television station today. The audio is mastered at a high level without any distortion, which makes this a very satisfying low-budget purchase. The standard Alpha six-chapter layout is adequate to the movie which uses lots of montages to cover 20 years in the life of the fighter.